Red White and Blue Fun with Beads and Pipe Cleaners

 

This is our patriotic tot time activity for the week.  It is a great way to work on small motor skills, color recognition and patterns.

 

 

 Little Dude sorted out the beads into piles.

Zippy thought one of the piles looked like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

 

So she made the Lower Peninsula to match.  {That little bead way up at the top there is Mackinac Island}

Tot Time: Oceans and Beaches

A Week's worth of educational fun with Ocean and Beaches

{I planned a whole week's worth of fun, we actually only did some.  I'm including the links to the activities that we didn't do as well as photos of the activities that we did}

Sensory Bin:

• Play Sand
• Flattened glass marbles 
• A couple of pieces of landscaping glass (not sharp
• Shells
• Sand toys (a rake and a fish mold)
• a bucket of water

The sensory bin started out so lovely.  The water and sand quickly turned it into a muddy mess...that the kids loved.  Both of them had fun with it all week.  I let the Little Dude play with it alone on Friday while Zippy was at the library reading program.  He spent probably 45 minutes playing, sorting and just enjoying the feeling of the cool water/sand on his hands (we've been averaging temps in the 90s this week and this is definitely and outdoor sensory bin).

Books:

Day 1: Counting Shells

Source: pre-kpages.com via Holly on Pinterest

Day 2: Wave Bottle

Day 3: Matching Ocean Animals

Day 4: How Many Animals in the Sea (counting)

Extras:

Octo-dog
Sand Play Dough
Ocean Play Dough (the blue one) 

Spring Garden Sensory Bin

This is my first sensory bin and a very simple affair.  I wanted a bin with lots of texture and a way to move it around.  I also wanted a bin that had some natural colors, conveying the idea of a spring garden with dirt, seeds and buds.   The ingredients are:

• Lima Beans
• Black Beans
• Split Peas
• Pasta
• A spoon
• A cup (with a picture of a bug)

Little Dude had a blast using the spoon to put the contents into the cup.  One of my big goals for this is to keep the contents in the bin, and we succeeded. 

Tot Time - Books and Shapes

Little Dude is 23 months old

This week happened a little more organically than the last few.  Because I have been dealing with his big sister's schooling a little more this week I did not have the time to put in the planning for Little Dude's week, however he found some great leaning opportunities all on his own, I just encouraged them a little bit.

The Little Dude loves books.  He has loved books since he was old enough to sit up and hold them.  One of his favorite activities is to sit (in a bookshelf - I really wish I had a picture) next to my chair while I am working on the computer and look at books.  Well, this week he decided that sitting next to me was not enough, he wanted to sit with me and look at books.  So since he was in my lap anyway, I read him the books he brought.  He thought this was the greatest thing.  He especially likes the counting books.  He points at the numbers and I say them.  

Shapes

One of the greatest toys ever invented is the Shape-O toy by Tupperware.  I have entertained scores of children in the church nursery with this toy.  The Little Dude found ours this week.  The shapes are scattered in the toy box, but this turned out to be a good thing.  We started with just one shape, the circle, he figured out where it should go.  The we took it out and he did it again.  After about 20 or so times, I went to try to find some more shapes.  I found two more, the star and the trapezoid, and we played the game again, and again, every day.  

Today being the beginning of the month, I really want to make some Tot-Time goals, more focused, structured time with the Little Dude, a monthly theme (April is Spring), and find some benchmarks/evaluations to see what he can and should be able to learn at his age.  I am continually amazed at his abilities and aptitude. 

{Linked up: Homeschool Creations, Tot School}

Tot Time - Puffballs

Little Dude is 23 months old

This week we did not do a lot in Tot School.  The Little Dude was suffering from a little cold, so most of his time was spent curled up on my lap watching Little Einsteins.  By Friday though he had recovered enough to give a go at the puffballs.  

Two different containers, two colors of puffs. He did a little bit with it, but was not really interested.  Oh well, on to the next great idea.

{Linked up: Homeschool Creations, Tot School}

Tot Time - Beans and Stickers

This is our first week doing Tot School with the Little Dude and he is so excited. 
We started out the week with stickers.  I wasn't sure how he would react, but he thought it was so much fun to peel and stick

Later in the week we moved on to beans.  I wanted to do a pouring station/tray, because I thought he would enjoy this.  He enjoyed pouring beans into the paper cups, then he enjoyed pouring them back, then he enjoyed pouring beans on the floor.  We are going to have to work on that.

It was ok though, because he helped me clean it up.  He is a great helper.

One thing I realized was that The Little Dude really needs his own table in his size, so this week I will be working on digging the tot table out and getting that set up for him.